Buying a house

Posted by Nicole

How do people in the NYC/Northern New Jersey metro area do it? We have two incomes, no children and no outstanding debt, yet we’d have to be creative in managing a mortgage and property taxes. And what happens when a baby comes into the picture?

Apparently, you need to start saving early — like years in advance — in order to make it work. Putting down anything less than 20% of the home price means you’ll get slapped with PMI (private mortgage insurance) payments in addition to your mortgage until you reach the 20% equity.

Don’t forget the closing costs, too. They usually comprise about 2% of your purchase price. And if you pay points, that’s another $1,000 per point, to. So for a $350,000 home that you’ve put down 20% on, 2% in closing costs is $7,000 — and 1 point brings it up to $8,300, according to this Countrywide Home Loans calculator.